Tuesday, August 12, 2014

I Have A Cover!

Two, actually. The first one is for Miriam's Surrender, the second book in my Women of Valor series (I also have a series title--yay!). I love it!
Here it is:

What do you think?

It’s funny because whenever it’s time to work on the covers
for my books, I always laugh. My publisher sends me a cover sheet that I’m
supposed to fill out with information about my book—title, summary, character
information, setting. I’m also supposed to suggest photos that I like and the
type of cover I’d like—do I want people or not, is there a particular item or
symbol I want to show, etc. And the best part is the section that asks, “What
DON’T you want on the cover.”

Now, writers often compare their books to babies. We create
the book and know our characters as if they were real people. That’s true. But
having had babies—two of them—I see a big difference between what I create and
whom I birth. While I’m partial to my own writing, I recognize that my book is
a thing. It’s not my baby. Therefore, while I definitely give parameters, I
don’t usually have too many “must haves” or “must not haves.”

Miriam’s Surrender is my fourth book. It is also the
fourth cover that, while maybe didn’t completely ignore my suggestions, used
the judgment of the art department more than mine. And it’s the fourth cover
that I completely loved from the moment I saw it.

Even though I’m not a fan of split covers.

Even though I’m not a fan of people on my covers (yes, every
single one of mine has had a person on it—go figure).

Even though it doesn’t have anything to do with the first
cover in the series.

I love this cover!

However, I was also given a mock up of another cover, the rerelease of A Heart of Little Faith, which Rebel Ink is going to republish soon. I'm having a hard time deciding if I like it or not. I think, honestly, my biggest problem is that I'm so used to associating the old cover with the title, that any change jars me. It's not that I don't like the cover; I do. It's just that it's different, and as anyone who knows me will tell you, I am not good with change.

So I'm going to spend a good part of the day, when I'm not doing something specific, staring at the mock cover and getting used to it. Because I do really like it. It's just different.

I just finished working with a graphics designer on promo
material for Miriam’s Surrender, which releases on September 10. If
you’d like me to send it to you, leave a comment on the blog and I’ll do so.

I really like this cover, Jen. Although I've never had one myself, I think the split cover works well.

I did have to laugh at your comment about the art department's judgment instead of yours...the last couple of times for my covers I've wondered why I filled out the form at all, since no one seemed to have read my notes. I did, however, absolutely love the cover for my January release...this latest one, I'm still not sold o, but I do agree that bowing to someone else's expertise in an area I have absolutely no experience can't be all bad.

You're lucky because when the cover artist deviated from what I had told her to do for 30 Seconds (out soon), it turned out terrible and had nothing to do with my book what-so-ever. Luckily, I was given the chance to see it first and pick out my own stock images to help the cover artist. It was odd because I used her before, and when she went with what I said for Hurricane Crimes it turned out amazing.